Back in Brixham again - William of Orange and the fisherman Peter Varwell, 1688

My thanks to the reader who, a few weeks ago, reminded me of the Brixham / Broxholme tradition that, on the night of his arrival in England, William Prince of Orange stayed in a fisherman's house.  Brixham's fishermen harvest the most fabulous seafood, as the very wonderful Rockfish chain of restaurants and takeaways keep proving to me when I am over there - a branch of Rockfish is a 'must visit' location every time. As their slogan says, "tomorrow's fish are still in the sea".

The fisherman was called Peter Varwell, and he may even have helped carry William ashore to keep the princely boots dry - as the author Charles G. Harper would later imagine, "they had to hoof it through the water and the fish offal". His house is thought to have once stood on Middle Street, and is shown in the lantern slide below. It became a well-known local landmark for nearly 300 years, featuring in books and postcards over the centuries. 

There is another local theory that the location of the Varwell house was actually on Higher Street (see The English Riviera by Anthony Poulton-Smith, online here). The two locations are separated by Apters Hill, a tiny street that's just 20 yards long.

Regardless of whether it was Higher Street or Middle Street, at some point in the late 1960s the house was demolished as part of a wider regeneration scheme to make a big car park in the centre of the town, set in a hollow which the sea once came up into. Today, Middle Street is pretty much unrecognisable from the era of the photograph - the buildings right along one side of the street were completely removed, for the benefit of the motorists using the future Brixham Central Car Park.

But, when I was back in Brixham last week, I went to the other site, which is just outside The Manor Pub (which claims to be one of the oldest pubs in Devon - it is named on the 1874 Ordnance Survey map) and I took these pics. Apters Hill was closed to traffic for the annual Christmas lights switch-on and firework display, which we went to. The potential site of the Varwell House is today the site of an outdoor pergola area. 

 

If Higher Street was the location, then perhaps the rough stonework is all that remains of the Peter Varwell house?

The church beyond is All Saints, where Fermanagh-raised Henry Francis Lyte, best known today as the author of the hymn Abide With Me, was minister from 1824 until 1847. His wife Anne was a Maxwell from Falkland in County Monaghan.

Regardless of whether it was Higher Street or Middle Street, here is a contemporary Dutch engraving of the scene, entitled His Royal Highness Lodged in a Fisher's Hut, from the Rijksmuseum.

Far away from high politics – and all the usual Northern Ireland baggage that has diminished William's legacy – the Brixham and Devon community memory of William's arrival was handed down through the centuries. Here's just one marvellous account –

"... one of those who flocked to see the Prince was a Miss Juliana Babbage, from a brother of whom the late Charles Babbage, the famous mathematician, was descended. She came, when a girl of twelve, from Barbadoes, and was also a decided Nonconformist.

On the 5th November, 1688, she was attending the old meeting-house in Totnes, at a thanksgiving service for the discovery of the gunpowder plot, and while there was told that the Prince of Orange was in Torbay landing his troops. She also hailed the news with joy, and as soon as service was over set off to walk to Brixham, accompanied by an old lady of her acquaintance, and making their way to the Prince, they boldly welcomed him to England.

He shook hands with them, and gave them some of his Proclamations to distribute, which they did so industriously that not one was left in the family as a memorial. A crimson velvet and gold purse, a pincushion, and a gold chain, which she is said to have worn on the occasion, as well as a curious gold locket with hair belonging to her, are still in the possession of our family.

These stories come to me from a relative who has attained an honoured old age, who, owing to the early death of her mother, passed her childhood and girlhood in an old family circle, and heard from the lips of those elderly relatives tales of old times, which they had received in like manner from their relatives.

This lady says her grandmother told her she well recollected her father joking her mother as to what might have happened if the Prince had not succeeded, saying, "Oh, mistress, your aunt might have swung for it! ..."

I understand that the Varwell family still live in the area. You might imagine that there should be a plaque or monument somewhere to mark the former site of the once-famous cottage home.

15 years from now, 2038, will be the 350th anniversary. As the old proverb says, “A society grows great when old people plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit”.

• Source here.

• Image below is from The South Devon Coast by Charles G Harper (1907)